Nicole Kidman wasn’t playing around when she agreed to take on the role of Celeste Wright on Big Little Lies. On the HBO series, Celeste is abused by her husband, Perry Wright, who appears as charming as can be to those who don’t know about his dark side. Though it is just acting, Kidman expressed how much the role became a part of her, both on- and off-set.
“There were days and days of doing a lot of aggressive, really violent scenes. And I would go home and have a shower or have a bath and I would weep at home. And it would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what is happening to me?’” Kidman told Entertainment Weekly.
Nicole went on to say that she even got to a point where she threw a rock at a glass door because she was experiencing so much stress from the role. “It just penetrated my psyche in a way a film never had,” she said. Yikes.
Kidman certainly didn’t take the role lightly, which showed in her devastatingly real portrayal of Celeste. The actress admitted to EW that she felt “very exposed and embarrassed” because her emotions would blend with Celeste’s, leaving her overwhelmed.
Nicole previously shared with Vogue that there were days when she went home with bruises from her scenes with Alexander Skarsgård, who played Perry. She even had to take Advil due to the physical pain she endured on set. “At one point [her husband] Keith [Urban] was like, ‘I’m going to take a photo of your back because it’s covered in deep, massive bruises.’ He was devastated seeing it, but then he would say, ‘But I have an artist wife!'”
Of her decision to not go the route of using a stunt double, Kidman told EW, “I was living through it. I felt the necessity to do that for the truth of this story, which I feel is a very important story to tell.”
Despite the many emotions and the stress Kidman was subjected to, she’s happy that this project happened. “I like the high-wire act of it…Conformity is what I run from,” she said. That’s why we love you, Nicole.
The Big Little Lies finale aired Sunday night, and while a second season is being discussed, it’s far from a sure thing.